A Mario Gomez hat-trick helped Bayern Munich dispatch Hannover 96 3-0 at the Allianz Arena in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Gomez opened the scoring in the 21st minute when his header found the bottom right corner of the net, and he doubled Munich's advantage in the 77th minute with a powerful left foot strike.
The German international capped his hat-trick by latching onto a Thomas Muller cross and heading into the top left corner to seal the victory.
Schalke 04 and VfB Stuttgart remain chained to the bottom of the table after they drew 2-2 at the Veltins Arena.
Stuttgart led twice, firstly through Timo Gebhart's opener on 15 minutes, then courtesy of Martin Harnik's strike with 15 minutes remaining.
But Schalke's 29th minute strike from Edu and 80th minute penalty taken by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar ensured the visitors were pegged back and kept to a point.
Elsewhere, Werder Bremen secured a valuable three points with a 2-1 win over Freiburg at the Weserstadion.
The victory took Bremen to ninth in the league standings, with German forward Aaron Hunt and Portugese striker Hugo Almeida both netting for the hosts.
Hamburger SV caused a major upset with an 89th-minute strike to Peruvian forward Paolo Guerrero gifting the visitors a 1-0 victory over Mainz at the Stadion am Bruchweg.
Mainz remain in second spot on the league table despite the loss.
St Pauli had to fight off a resurgent Nurnberg, but did so successfully, winning 3-2 at Millerntor Stadion.
Florian Burns' goal in the 82nd minute was the difference between the two sides, after the hosts had given up earlier leads.
Bayer Leverkusen took all three points from their away fixture to VfL Wolfsburg at Volkswagen Arena, recovering from a two-goal deficit to triumph 3-2.
The visitors scored thrice in the space of 10 minutes late in the second half, with two to Simon Rolfes and an Arturo Vidal penalty securing a stunning come-from-behind win.